A device reader and means of generating an image therefor

ABSTRACT

A device reader ( 101 ) for receiving data from a separate device ( 103 ) comprises a display ( 205 ) and a first antenna ( 105 ) for receiving data from the separate device. The first antenna ( 105 ) has a device reader antenna position relative to the display ( 205 ). A display processor ( 207 ) displays an image of at least part of the separate device ( 103 ) on the display ( 205 ). The image has an associated image antenna position corresponding to a position in the image of an antenna ( 107 ) in the separate device ( 103 ). The image is displayed such that the image antenna position is aligned with the device reader antenna position. The image may be determined from a non-customized image of the separate device ( 103 ) by e.g. rotation, scaling and positioning based on a display characteristic of the display ( 205 ), such as specifically a size, resolution or pixel-size. The approach may facilitate a user in aligning a device with a device reader when using short-range communication, such as e.g. NFC communication.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a device reader and to generation of an imagefor a device reader, and in particular, but not exclusively to a devicereader and an image for aligning the device reader to another device forcommunication using Near Field Communication.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Electronic appliances and devices are used in an increasing amount andvariety of applications. In addition, consumer devices increasinglyinterwork with other devices and to enable such interworking anincreased desire has arisen for communication between devices, such ase.g. personal consumer devices. For example, the advent of personalcomputational devices, such as smartphones, has led to a consumer'spersonal device being used with a variety of other devices to provide anenhanced user experience. As a specific example, a smartphone maycommunicate with e.g. an advanced electrical toothbrush to downloadusage data for presentation to the user on the display of thesmartphone.

In many such applications, the communication may be achieved through theuse of very short range communication links. Specifically, acommunication standard known as Near Field Communication (NFC) has beendeveloped. NFC is designed to provide very short range communicationbetween devices. The communication may be a master/slave configuration,or may in many scenarios and embodiments be a peer-to-peercommunication. NFC allows a relatively high data rate.

NFC is unlike other wireless connectivity standards in that it is onlyable to transfer data when within a very close proximity of another NFCdevice (typically less than 10 cm, and with only a few centimetersdistance for most efficient communications). The data may be exchangedat a data rate of up to 424 kbits/s. This provides a number of distinctadvantages over conventional data communication approaches, including:

Intuitive connections to other devices as the act of bringing devicestogether not only enables the connection but also makes it clear whichtwo devices are connected. Increased security and privacy as the otherconnected device must be in close proximity.

Transferring data to an external computational device, which may e.g.have suitable means for providing a user interface (especially a largedisplay), may result in improved user interaction.

For example, for a tooth brush it may enable a record of brushingactivity to be kept externally, and may provide an opportunity foranalysis and motivation to improve brushing.

Smartphones are becoming increasingly ubiquitous and benefits fromfamiliar user interfaces and an excellent connectivity to the outsideworld. Increasingly, these devices are becoming a part of users' dailyroutine and people increasingly keep them close to hand at all times.

Enabling devices such as smartphones and toothbrushes with a short rangecommunication functionality, such as NFC, enables them to communicatewith each other when brought into close contact. This enables the phoneto act as a computing resource controlled by an application that cane.g. monitor the external device. For example, for a toothbrush brushingperformance can be evaluated, brushing targets can be set, customizedfeedback and coaching can be provided to the user etc. Suchfunctionality may be enabled by the physical act of the user bringingthe phone and toothbrush together, resulting in the tooth brushingapplication automatically being initialized and thus appearing as anapplication on the phone. The application can then analyze the brushingdata and display results.

The use of extreme short range communications, such as NFC, to establisha communication link between two devices provides for practicality and auser interaction which is particularly suitable for many consumerapplications. In particular, in the consumer segment, the approachallows for a simple and intuitive operation for coupling devicestogether. The user simply brings the two devices into sufficiently closecontact with each other and this action allows the communication link tobe automatically established. For example, in order to download brushingdata from an electrical toothbrush to a smartphone, all the user needsto do is touch the toothbrush and smartphone together.

However, due to the extreme short range of communication technologiessuch as NFC, it is required that devices are brought together correctlyand typically the quality of, and in some cases the ability toestablish, a communication link is highly dependent on how the devicesare brought together. For example, turning a toothbrush the wrong waymay degrade the communication link substantially as a less than idealcoupling between the devices is established.

However, providing detailed instructions to users on how to specificallybring the devices together in order to optimize the communication linkis often inconvenient and impractical and will be perceived by the userto be a complex and cumbersome operation. Therefore, in many cases theresulting communication link is suboptimal or indeed in many scenarios,no communication link is established due to the devices not beingbrought properly together, even if they e.g. are brought into contactwith each other. In many scenarios, a suboptimal user experience isachieved with the user finding the operation inconvenient and difficult.

Hence, an improved approach would be advantageous and in particular anapproach which facilitates the establishment of short rangecommunication links, provides an improved trade-off between userconvenience and communication quality and/or reliability, providesfacilitated operation, provides increased flexibility and/or providesimproved performance would be advantageous.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the Invention seeks to preferably mitigate, alleviate oreliminate one or more of the above mentioned disadvantages singly or inany combination.

According to an aspect of the invention there is provided a devicereader for receiving data from a separate device, the device readercomprising: a display; a first antenna for receiving data from theseparate device, the first antenna having a device reader antennaposition relative to the display; a display processor for displaying afirst image of at least part of the separate device on the display, thefirst image having an associated first image antenna positioncorresponding to a position in the first image of an antenna in theseparate device; the display processor being arranged to display thefirst image such that the first image antenna position is aligned withthe device reader antenna position.

The invention may allow an improved user experience for a device readerand may in many embodiments provide an improved user experience whenestablishing a communication link between the device reader and theseparate device. For example, when establishing a communication linkbetween a device reader and a separate device using NFC communication,the approach may provide a convenient user experience for allowing theuser to easily align the devices physically. Also, typically a moreaccurate alignment of the physical devices can be achieved therebyallowing improved reading of the separate device.

In particular, the approach may display (at least part of) an image ofthe separate device on the display of the device reader and request auser to physically position the separate device over the display suchthat the physical separate device is aligned with the image of theseparate device. This will result in the antenna of the separate deviceto be close to the first image antenna position. Furthermore, as theimage is displayed such that the first image antenna position is alignedwith the position of the first antenna, the simple user operationachieves an accurate and simple alignment of the antennas of the devicereader and the separate device. Thus, the device reader provides anoperation that facilitates and steers the user thereby allowing improvedalignment. Furthermore, by using simple and intuitive visual directions,the user perceives the operation to be simple and easy, and avoids theneed for the user to have any understanding of the technical reasons forthe operation or the alignment.

A particular advantage of the approach may be for a separate device thatcomprises a plurality of antennas, such as NFC antennas, supportingdifferent functions. In such embodiments, the approach may facilitatethe user selecting the appropriate part of the separate device for thespecific function supported by the device reader. For example, asmartphone may present different images corresponding to different partsof the separate device for different applications. Thus, depending onthe application that the user initiates, the smartphone will show thepart of the separate device which comprises the antenna that supportsthis specific function.

The alignment of the device reader antenna position and the first imageantenna position may specifically correspond to a minimization of adistance between the positions. The minimization may be subject to otherconstraints or requirements. In some embodiments, the device readerantenna position may be a position on the display (e.g. by a projectionof a center of the first antenna on the display). The first imageantenna position may be a position in the first image of the firstantenna. The display processor may display the first image such that thefirst image antenna position is positioned substantially on top of thedevice reader antenna position when the first image is rendered on thedisplay.

The device reader may comprise a communication processor for receivingdata over a communication link established between the first antenna andthe second antenna.

The display processor may display other information in addition to thefirst image. For example, the first image may be overlaid by e.g. textor icons providing feedback to the user. In some embodiments, thedisplay processor may be arranged to display user instructionsinstructing a user to position the separate device aligned with thedisplay of the first image.

In some embodiments, the displayed image may comprise an image of theentire separate device. However, in many embodiments, the separatedevice may be larger than the display, and the first image may onlyrepresent a part of the separate device. Typically, the part displayedwill include the first image antenna position, and thus a position ofthe second antenna will typically be proximal to the device reader whenthe separate device is aligned with the displayed image.

The first image may provide a visual representation of at least part ofthe separate device. The first image may when displayed typicallyprovide a real sized representation of (part of) the separate device,i.e. the scale may typically be 1:1 between the separate device and thedisplayed image. In many embodiments, the first image may be the same asthe displayed image, i.e. the resolution of the display may be the sameas the resolution of the first image and each pixel of the display maycorrespond to one pixel of the first image. The first image may furtherbe associated with a pixel size which is the same as the physical sizeof the pixels in the display.

The first image is typically a still image. The display processor may bearranged to display the first image for an extended duration, andtypically for no less than 1, 2, 5, 10 or 30 seconds. The displayprocessor may accordingly be arranged to present the first image as astill image such that the first image antenna position is aligned withthe device reader antenna position.

The display processor may be arranged to display the first imageindependently of a movement of the device reader and/or the separatedevice, and the first image may be independent of the movement of thedevice reader and/or the separate device. Thus, the device reader maypresent a (semi-)permanent image of at least part of the separate devicesuch that the first image antenna position is aligned with the devicereader antenna position.

Typically, the first image may be a photo of the separate device, andmay provide correct colors, marking etc. of the device. However, in somescenarios the visual representation of the separate device may be e.g. asimplified rendering such as an outline or wire model representation. Insome embodiments, the first image may for example be generated from athree dimensional model of the separate device. In some embodiments thevisual representation provided by the first image may include arepresentation of a surface characteristic, such as a texture or amarking. Specifically, the separate device may include a markingindicating the position of the antenna and the first image may include arepresentation of this marking. The representation may for example be astylized representation, such as a logo representation included in awire frame model.

The display processor may be arranged to display the image such that itis scaled, oriented (rotated), and/or positioned to result in the devicereader antenna position and the first image antenna position beingaligned.

In accordance with an optional feature of the invention, the devicereader further comprises: an image generator for providing a secondimage of at least part of the separate device, the second image havingan associated second image antenna position corresponding to theposition in the second image of the antenna in the separate device; andan image processor for generating the first image from the second imagein response to the device reader antenna position, the second imageantenna position, and a display property of the display.

This may provide an advantageous operation and implementation in manyscenarios. In particular, it may allow the device reader to determine asuitable image and may avoid or reduce the need for and reliance onexternal functionality.

The image processor may be arranged to at least one of scale, rotate,and translate the second image when generating the first image.

The image generator may specifically provide a second image which is notcustomized to the specific combination of the device reader and theseparate device. For example, a standard photo of the separate devicemay be provided by the image generator. E.g. the image generator maycomprise an image store which stores a standard image of the separatedevice together with an indication of where the second antenna is inthis image, i.e. together with a stored position. The image processormay then customize the standard image to the specific combination of thedevice reader and the separate device.

Thus, in many embodiments, the second image may be an image which is notcustomized to the combination of the device reader and the separatedevice (and may thus be generated independently of at least one ofthese) whereas the first image may be customized to the combination ofthe device reader and the separate device.

The display processor may specifically generate the first image from thesecond image such that the second image antenna position in the secondimage will end up at a first image antenna position in the first imagewhich when the first image is displayed on the display will end upaligned with the device reader antenna position. In many embodiments,the first image antenna position may be the position in the first imagecorresponding to the device reader antenna position on the display.

The display processor may in many embodiments generate the first imagefrom the second image such that the representation of the separatedevice is life size when the first image is displayed on the display.

In accordance with an optional feature of the invention, the devicereader further comprises: a transmitter for transmitting an indicationof at least one of the device reader and the separate device to a remoteserver; and a receiver for receiving the second image from the remoteserver.

This may provide improved performance and/or facilitated implementationin many embodiments. For example, it may provide an efficient approachof obtaining suitable images which can then be locally customized forthe specific combination of separate device and separate device.

In accordance with an optional feature of the invention, the devicefurther comprises: a transmitter for transmitting an indication of atleast one of the device reader and the separate device to a remoteserver; and a receiver for receiving the first image from the remoteserver.

This may provide improved performance and/or facilitated implementationin many embodiments. For example, it may provide an efficient approachof obtaining suitable images which do not need to be locally customizedfor the specific combination of a separate device and a separate device.Indeed, in some embodiments, the remote server may directly provide animage which is suitable for direct presentation on the display.

For example, the device reader may transmit identification data of atype or model of the device reader and/or the separate device. Inresponse to receiving this data, the remote server may generate an imagewhich is suitable for direct presentation on the display of the devicereader, and which will accordingly provide an alignment of the firstimage antenna position and the device reader antenna position whendisplayed. For example, an image with a photo of (part of) the separatedevice at the resolution of the display and positioned and rotatedappropriately may be provided by the remote server. The device readermay directly display this image e.g. without performing any localcustomization or image processing. If a user aligns the separate devicewith the presented image, this will then result in an alignment of thefirst antenna and the second antenna.

In accordance with an optional feature of the invention, the firstantenna is a Near Field Communication, NFC, antenna and the apparatuscomprises a communication processor for receiving data from the separatedevice by NFC communication using the first antenna.

The approach may provide much improved user experience when establishingNFC communications which requires antennas to be positioned very closeto each other.

In accordance with an optional feature of the invention, the displayprocessor is arranged to display the first image on the display inresponse to a detection of a presence of the separate device.

This may provide a particularly efficient operation and a veryattractive user experience. The detection may specifically be adetection of the separate device over a wireless link using the antenna.For example, the device reader may be arranged to read data from theseparate device over an NFC link, and the detection of the presence ofthe separate device may be by a detection of the presence of the NFCfunctionality of the separate device.

In accordance with an optional feature of the invention, the first imagecomprises a representation of at least part of the separate device thatwill be occluded by the device reader when the device reader ispositioned in front of the separate device and the first image antennaposition is aligned with the device reader antenna position.

This may provide advantageous operation in many embodiments andscenarios. In particular, it may provide advantageous operation in manyscenarios where the separate device is larger than the device reader.Indeed, in many embodiments, it may be advantageous for the presentedimage to guide the user to establish a communication link with thedevice reader in front of the separate device. By presenting e.g.features that may be occluded when the device reader and separate deviceare optimally aligned, the user may be guided towards such optimalalignment. Specifically, the presentation of these occluded features maylead the user to seek to visually complete the visual impression of theseparate device by filling in the occluded parts of the separate deviceby the image presented on the display. The alignment being achieved withthe device reader in front of the separate device may also allow orfacilitate the provision of information, such as instructions, to auser.

The device reader may specifically be in front of the separate devicewhen the separate device does not occlude parts of the display of thedevice reader and/or when the device reader occludes part of the devicefrom a viewpoint suitable for viewing the display. Indeed, the displaymay define a plane. The device reader may be in front of the separatedevice when the device reader is positioned in the volume on the side ofthe plane into which the display does not radiate light. The devicereader may be in front of the separate device when the separate deviceis in the volume behind the plane formed/defined by the display.

The alignment of the first image antenna position and the device readerantenna position may correspond to an alignment of the displayed firstimage and the separate device.

In accordance with an optional feature of the invention, the first imagecomprises a representation of an outline of at least part of theseparate device, or an image of the at least part of the separate devicecorresponding to an outline of the separate device projected on thedisplay when the separate device is positioned in front of the devicereader and the first image antenna position is aligned with the devicereader antenna position.

This may provide an advantageous operation in many embodiments andscenarios. In particular, it may provide advantageous operation in manyscenarios where the separate device is smaller than the device reader.Indeed, in many embodiments, it may be advantageous for the presentedimage to guide the user to establish a communication link with theseparate device being in front of the device reader. By presentingoutline information corresponding to when the device reader and separatedevice are optimally aligned, the user may be guided towards suchoptimal alignment. Specifically, the user may seek to match the edges ofthe separate device to the displayed outline.

The separate device may specifically be in front of the separate devicewhen the separate device occludes parts of the display of the devicereader and/or when the device reader occludes part of the device from aviewpoint suitable for viewing the display. Indeed, the display maydefine a plane. The separate device may be in front of the device readerwhen it is positioned in the volume on the side of the plane into whichthe display radiates light. The separate device may be in front of thedevice reader when the separate device is in the volume in front of theplane formed/defined by the display.

The alignment of the first image antenna position and the device readerantenna position may correspond to an alignment of the displayed firstimage and the separate device.

In accordance with an optional feature of the invention, the first imageis a still image. In accordance with some embodiments of the invention,the display processor is arranged to display the first image as a stillimage.

Specifically, the first image may not be part of a video sequence or amoving image sequence, and the display processor may not render a movingimage sequence but rather present a single still image for an extendedduration. Specifically, the first image may be presented in connectionwith a communication link setup, and the first image may be presenteduntil the communication link setup is terminated (e.g. successfully orunsuccessfully).

In accordance with an optional feature of the invention, the displayprocessor is arranged to display the first image independently of amovement of the device reader.

The first image and the displaying of the first image may specificallybe independent of any movement or position of the separate device and/orthe device reader.

The first image may specifically represent the desired target scenariowhich reflects the desired relative positioning of the device reader andthe separate device. Thus, the presented first image may not reflect thecurrent situation or the current positions but rather reflect the endgoal which is independent of the current conditions.

In accordance with an optional feature of the invention, the alignmentbetween the first image antenna position and the device reader antennaposition is independent of a position of the device reader and of aposition of the separate device.

According to an aspect of the invention there is provided an apparatusfor generating a first image for displaying on a display of a devicereader further comprising a first antenna for receiving data from aseparate device, the first antenna having a first image antenna positionin the first image, the apparatus comprising: an image generator forproviding a second image of at least part of the separate device, thesecond image having an associated second image antenna positioncorresponding to a position in the second image of an antenna in theseparate device; and an image processor for generating the first imagefrom the second image in response to the first image antenna position,the second image antenna position, and a display property of thedisplay.

The approach may allow an image to be generated for a device readerwhich can substantially facilitate proper alignment of a device readerand a separate device, e.g. to establish an NFC communication link.

The image generator may specifically provide a second image which is notcustomized to the specific combination of the device reader and theseparate device. For example, a standard photo of the separate devicemay be provided by the image generator. E.g. the image generator maycomprise an image store which stores a standard image of the separatedevice together with an indication of where the second antenna is inthis image, i.e. together with a stored position. The image processormay then customize the standard image to the specific combination ofdevice reader and separate device.

Thus, in many embodiments, the second image may be an image notcustomized to the combination of device reader and separate device (andmay thus be generated independently of at least one of these) whereasthe first image may be customized to the combination of device readerand separate device.

The display processor may specifically generate the first image from thesecond image such that the second image antenna position in the secondimage is positioned in the first image at the first image antennaposition. In many embodiments, the second image antenna position may bethe actual position of the antenna in the second image and the firstimage position may be the corresponding target position for the antennain the first image, where the target position corresponds to theposition of the antenna of the device reader in the first image.

The display processor may in many embodiments generate the first imagefrom the second image such that the representation of the separatedevice is life size when the first image is displayed on the display.

The first image antenna position may be a position of the antenna of thedevice reader in the first image when the first image is presented onthe display of the device reader.

The image generator and/or the image processor may be part of (comprisedin) the device reader itself or may e.g. be part of a remote server.

In accordance with an optional feature of the invention, the imageprocessor is arranged to generate the first image to include a part ofthe second image including the second image position, the part of thesecond image being positioned to substantially minimize a distancebetween the first image antenna position and the second image antennaposition in the first image.

This may allow improved alignment in many embodiments and scenarios.

In accordance with an optional feature of the invention, the imageprocessor is arranged to include at least a part of the second image inthe first image after applying an image operation to the least part ofthe second image, the image operation being selected from the group of:a translation; a rotation; and a scaling.

This may provide a particularly advantageous generation of the firstimage in many embodiments.

In accordance with an optional feature of the invention, the displayproperty comprises at least one property selected from the group of: asize of the display; a pixel size of the display; an orientation of thedisplay; and a resolution of the display.

This may provide a particularly advantageous generation of the firstimage in many embodiments.

In accordance with an optional feature of the invention, the apparatusis remote from the device reader, and the apparatus further comprises atransmitter arranged to transmit the second image to the device reader.

This may provide improved performance and/or facilitated implementationin many embodiments. For example, it may provide an efficient approachfor obtaining suitable images that do not need to be locally customizedfor the specific combination of device reader and separate device.Indeed, in some embodiments, the remote server may directly provide animage which is suitable for direct presentation on the display.

The apparatus is remote from the device reader and thus neither theimage generator nor the image processor may be part of (comprised in)the device reader itself. The device reader and remote apparatus maycommunicate with each other via a communication network, e.g. includingthe Internet.

In accordance with an optional feature of the invention, the apparatuscomprises a receiver arranged to receive an indication of the devicereader from the device reader; and the image processor is arranged todetermine the display property in response to the indication.

This may allow improved and/or facilitated operation and/orimplementation in many embodiments.

In some embodiments, the apparatus comprises a receiver arranged toreceive an indication of the display property from the first device; andthe image processor is arranged to determine the display property inresponse to the indication.

This may allow improved and/or facilitated operation and/orimplementation in many embodiments.

In accordance with an optional feature of the invention, the apparatuscomprises a receiver arranged to receive an indication of the separatedevice from the device reader; and the image generator is arranged togenerate the second image in response to the indication.

This may allow improved and/or facilitated operation and/orimplementation in many embodiments.

In accordance with an optional feature of the invention, the apparatusis comprised in the device reader.

This may provide an advantageous operation and implementation in manyscenarios. In particular, it may allow the device reader to determine asuitable image and may avoid or reduce the need for and reliance onexternal functionality,

According to an aspect of the invention there is provided a method ofoperation for a device reader operable to receive data from a separatedevice and comprising a display and a first antenna for receiving datafrom the separate device and having a device reader antenna positionrelative to the display; the method comprising: displaying a first imageof the separate device on the display, the first image having anassociated second first image antenna position corresponding to aposition of an antenna in the separate device wherein the first image isdisplayed such that the first image antenna position is aligned with thedevice reader antenna position.

According to an aspect of the invention there is provided a method ofgenerating a first image for displaying on a display of a device reader,the device reader comprising a first antenna for receiving data from aseparate device, the first antenna having a first image antenna positionin the first image; the method comprising: providing a second image ofat least part of the separate device, the second image having anassociated second image antenna position corresponding to a position inthe second image of an antenna in the separate device; and generatingthe first image from the second image in response to the first imageantenna position, the second image antenna position, and a displayproperty of the display.

These and other aspects, features and advantages of the invention willbe apparent from and elucidated with reference to the embodiment(s)described hereinafter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the invention will be described, by way of example only,with reference to the drawings, in which

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a system comprising a device readerreading a separate device over a wireless short range communicationlink;

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of elements of a device reader inaccordance with some embodiments of the invention;

FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrates an example of user alignment of a separatedevice and a device reader in accordance with some embodiments of theinvention;

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of elements of a device reader inaccordance with some embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a system comprising a device reader anda remote server in accordance with some embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of elements of a device reader inaccordance with some embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of elements of a server in accordance withsome embodiments of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF SOME EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

The following description focuses on embodiments of the inventionapplicable to a device reader for reading data from a separate externaldevice over an NFC communication link. However, it will be appreciatedthat the invention is not limited to any specific application orcommunication link.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a device reader 101 and a separatedevice 103 being read by the device reader 101 (i.e. it receives datafrom the separate device 103). The device reader 101 is arranged toreceive data from the separate device 103 over a short range radiocommunication link and specifically over an NFC communication link. Inorder to support the short range communication, the device reader 101comprises a first antenna 105 and the separate device 103 comprises asecond antenna 107. The antennas 103, 105 may typically be inductors,such as planar coils formed on a suitable substrate.

The communication between the separate device 103 and the device reader101 is accordingly only possible when the two antennas 105, 107 and thusthe two devices 101, 103 are very close together (typically 10 cm orsignificantly less). In fact, the communication between the devicereader 101 and the separate device 103 is generally initialized by auser by bringing the two devices 101, 103 close together, typically by“touching” them together.

As an example, the device reader 101 may be a personal computing device,such as a smartphone or a tablet, and the separate device 103 may be asuitable consumer appliance or device, such as a toothbrush. Thesmartphone may in such an example read usage data from the toothbrushvia the NFC communication link, and this data may then be analyzed,presented or otherwise used by the smartphone. The download of the usagedata may be initialized by a simple operation of touching the smartphoneand the toothbrush together thereby providing a very simple andintuitive user operation and experience.

However, in order to optimize the communication it is desirable tooptimize the coupling between the antennas (which are typicallyimplemented as inductors, such as planar coils). Indeed, it is generallydesirable to minimize the length of the communication path, and in manyembodiments it is desirable to position the antennas so close togetherthat they couple as inductors of a loosely coupled transformer ratherthan function as traditional radio frequency antennas. The reliabilityand capacity of the communication link is typically highly dependent onthe coupling between the antennas, and it is not atypical for reliableNFC communications to require the antennas to be within a fewcentimeters of each other.

However, this requirement also complicates the operation for the user.For example, many devices are relatively large compared to the desiredinter-antenna distance and consequently the mere bringing together ofthe devices cannot guarantee that a reliable communication link isformed. Rather, the quality of the communication link will also dependon exactly how the devices are brought together, as well as where theantennas are positioned in the devices etc. The user is typically notaware of such details, and accordingly the communication link may not beestablished or may be of inferior quality.

Indeed, it has been found that users in general have a lot of difficultyin touching two devices together to form a reliable connection in caseswhere one or both of the devices have a (hidden) NFC spot (i.e. antennaposition). The location and size of the NFC antenna is typicallydifferent depending on specific device type, size etc. Also in the manydevices, the NFC antenna is very small (e.g. in a watch or toothbrush)and the location may vary depending on the use case.

The device reader 101 comprises functionality for assisting thealignment of the two devices 101, 103 by the user, and in particular itallows the user to achieve an optimized alignment of the devices 101,103 using a very simple and intuitive user operation and withoutrequiring the user to have any knowledge or considerations of thedetailed properties of the devices (such as the positions of thedevices) or of the optimized alignments.

FIG. 2 illustrates elements of the device reader 101 in more details.

The device reader 101 comprises the antenna 105 (henceforth referred toas the first antenna 105). The first antenna 105 is an NFC antenna andmay specifically be implemented as a planar coil of suitable dimensions.The first antenna 105 is coupled to an NFC communication processor 201which is arranged to receive data from the separate device 103 via NFCcommunication. The communication may be a master/slave configuration(such as when reading an RFID tag using NFC), or may in many scenariosand embodiments be a peer-to-peer communication. Thus, the NFCcommunication processor 201 may be arranged to support peer-to-peercommunication, or one way master/slave configurations as appropriate.

The device reader 101 also comprises a device controller 203 which isarranged to implement the majority of functions of the device. Forexample, the device controller 203 may execute applications, control theoperation of the device reader 101 etc. as required or desired for theindividual embodiment and application.

Specifically, the device controller 203 may receive the data from theseparate device 103 from the communication processor 201, and mayproceed and analyze this data to provide user feedback. For example, inthe example where the separate device 103 is a toothbrush, the devicecontroller 203 may e.g. calculate average brush times etc. and presentthese to the user.

The device reader 101 further comprises a display 205. The display 205is positioned on the device and may for example be positioned on oneside of the device reader 101. E.g., in the example where the devicereader 101 is a smartphone, the majority of one side of the devicereader 101 may be taken up by the display 205.

The display 205 is coupled to a display processor 207 which is operableto drive the display 205 to present various display images. The displayprocessor 207 is coupled to the device controller 203 which is capableof controlling the display processor 207 to present the required image.Specifically, the display processor 207 may be arranged to (at times)present a still image on the display 205.

The first antenna 105 and the display 205 are part of the device reader101, and in the example both are located within or on the surface of anenclosure forming the device reader 101. The first antenna 105accordingly have a position relative to the display 205. The positionwill be referred to as the device reader antenna position. In someembodiments, the device reader antenna position can be considered as athree dimensional position (e.g. relative to a reference point on thedisplay) but in many embodiments the position may be considered as a twodimensional position, such as e.g. the image position of the point orpixel of the display which is closest to (the center of) the firstantenna 105.

In the system of FIG. 2, the display processor 207 is arranged todisplay a still image of the separate device 103 on the display 205 inorder to support the user alignment of the devices. The image may insome embodiments be an image of the entire separate device 103 but willin most embodiments or scenarios be an image of part of the separatedevice 103. The displayed image will henceforth be referred to as thefirst image.

The separate device 103 comprises the second antenna 107, typicallyinternally but possibly disposed on or near a surface of the separatedevice 103. The second antenna 107 is typically relatively smallcompared to the size of the separate device 103. The second antenna 107is associated with a position in the image of the separate device 103(i.e. in the first image), and this position is referred to as the firstimage antenna position. Thus, the first image antenna position maytypically correspond to a position in the first image of the (at leastpart of) the separate device 103 at which the antenna 107 would be seenif the other parts of the separate device 103 were transparent. Thefirst image antenna position may typically correspond to the point inthe first image which falls on the sightline from the viewpoint of thefirst image to the center of the second antenna 107.

The first image antenna position thus represents the position of thesecond antenna 107, i.e. of the antenna in the separate device 103. Thisimage position is thus a fixed position in the first image. Indeed,there is a specific image position in the first image which correspondsto the position of the second antenna 107 in the separate device, and asthe position of the second antenna 107 is fixed in the separate device103, the display position corresponding to the first image antennaposition is also a fixed and unchanging position. The first imageantenna position may specifically be given as e.g. a (two dimensional)image or pixel coordinate in the first image (e.g. relative to a cornerof the first image). Thus, specifically, the first image antennaposition may be a specific fixed image coordinate in the image.

The display processor 207 is arranged to display the first image suchthat the first image antenna position is aligned with the device readerantenna position. Specifically, the first image may be displayed suchthat the first image antenna position substantially coincides with thesecond antenna position.

Thus, the still image of the separate device 103 (the first image) isnot just displayed directly but rather is displayed with the specificconstraint and requirement that in the resulting displayed image, theposition corresponding to the position of the antenna of the externaldevice (the first image antenna position) is aligned with the actualphysical position of the antenna of the device reader 101, i.e. with theposition of the first antenna. The display of the first image is suchthat the resulting physical position on the display 205 of the firstimage antenna position is aligned with the physical position of thefirst antenna 105. The device reader 101 accordingly displays the imageof the separate device 103 such that the position in the imagecorresponding to the antenna of the separate device is displayed at aphysical position on the display which is aligned with the physicalposition of the antenna of the device reader 101. Specifically, bycontrolling how the first image is displayed, the image positioncorresponding to the antenna of the separate device 103 (the first imageantenna position) can be positioned as close to the physical position ofthe antenna in the device reader 101 as possible.

In many embodiments, the alignment may be achieved by the image beingrotated, scaled, and positioned such the distance between the positionof the first antenna 105 (e.g. as projected on the display andcorresponding to the device reader antenna position) and the first imageantenna position in the rendered image is minimized. Indeed, in manyembodiments, the alignment may be such that the distance between theposition on the display of the first image antenna position and theprojection of the device reader antenna position on the display isminimized (potentially subject to other restrictions or constraints orwithin a given degree of accuracy).

Specifically, the display of the first image may be such that the firstimage antenna position in the first image coincides with correspondingdevice reader antenna position on the display 205. The correspondingdevice reader antenna position may e.g. be the projection of a (threedimensional) device reader antenna position on the display (e.g. withthe projection being along the direction of the shortest distancebetween the antenna and the display 205, along a direction perpendicularto a plane of the a planar coil forming the first antenna 105, or alonga direction perpendicular to a display plane of the display 205).

As a result, the first image is presented to provide a very strong guideto the user of how the devices should be positioned relative to eachother in order to optimize the coupling between the antennas.

Specifically, a still image of the separate device 103 is presentedwhich illustrates a positioning of the separate device 103 relative tothe device reader 103 which in many scenarios corresponds directly tothe shortest distance between the antennas 105, 107, and thus to themaximum coupling between these. Accordingly, by simply trying toreplicate the still image (i.e. by matching the physical separate deviceto the presented still image of the device), the user will automaticallyoptimize the antenna coupling. In fact, the presented still image can beconsidered to reflect the optimum or desired positioning of the devicesrelative to each other, i.e. the presented still image represents thetarget scenario for the user. The user will intuitively andautomatically seek to achieve this target arrangement of the devicesthereby automatically, and indeed in many scenarios even without beingaware of it, maximizing the coupling between the antennas 105, 107. Infact, the user does not even have to be aware that he is performing atask of maximizing coupling between antennas, where the antennas arepositioned in the devices, or indeed even that the devices 101, 103comprise any antennas 105, 107. Rather, the user is presented with apicture on a display and merely intuitively seeks to replicate thispicture. The approach accordingly is highly suitable for a variety ofusers and consumers that often have little or no understanding orknowledge of the underlying technical features and functions enablingthe specific applications.

Indeed, in many scenarios, the first antenna 105 will typically be verysmall compared to the size of the separate device 103 resulting in itbeing insufficient for the user to merely hold the devices togetherrandomly as this could result in the antennas 105, 107 being far apartdespite the devices 101, 103 themselves being close. However, thedisplayed image provides a very simple and intuitive guide to the userof how to bring the devices 101, 103 together. Indeed, the presentationof an image of the separate device 103 on the display 205 willautomatically and subconsciously cause the user to position the separatedevice 103 in a similar fashion. Thus, although instructions may beprovided to the user, the user will typically not even require these inorder to perform the desired operation. Indeed, the user may optimizethe coupling between the devices without having any knowledge of doingso or any knowledge of the involved technical considerations orcharacteristics.

In some embodiments, the first image may automatically be displayed whenthe presence of the separate device 103 is detected by the device reader101. The detection may for example be a detection of the presence of theNFC communication function of the separate device 103 by thecommunication processor 201.

As an example, the user may desire to transfer data from a toothbrush toa smartphone and may therefore begin to bring the devices together. Atsome point, the smartphone will detect the presence of the toothbrushand in response it will present an image of the part of the toothbrushwhere the NFC antenna is positioned. Thus, the user will experience thatas he is bringing the toothbrush and the smartphone together, thedisplay of the smartphone will suddenly show an image of a part of thetoothbrush. The user will proceed to align the toothbrush and smartphonetogether such that the physical toothbrush will be aligned with theimage on the display. By doing so, the user will automatically (andtypically without knowing it) optimize the coupling between the NFCantennas, and thus optimize the coupling.

In essence, the user will experience a scenario where he will completethe image of part of the separate device 103 by positioning the separatedevice 103 to overlap the display 205 (or the display to overlap theseparate device 103). Examples of this are in FIGS. 3 and 4. When seeingthe image of part of the separate device 103 on the display, the userwill seek to match that part image with the full visual image of thephysical separate device 103. By doing so, the user will due to thealignment of the device reader antenna position (of the antenna 105 ofthe device reader 101) and the first image antenna position (of theantenna 107 of the separate device 103) optimize the communication link,thereby allowing an improved and more reliable data transfer.

It will be appreciated that whereas FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate exampleswherein the device reader 101 (in the form of a smartphone) ispositioned in front of the separate device 103 (in the form of atoothbrush), the alignment may in other embodiments or scenarios beachieved by the separate device 103 being positioned in front of thedevice reader 101. Indeed, for many practical devices which tend to berelatively thin (such as a smartphone) it will not be significantwhether the separate device 103 is in front or behind the display/image.

It is noted that an advantage of the described approach is that it maybe used both for applications wherein the device reader 101 is in frontof the separate device 103 as well as for scenarios in which theseparate device 103 is in front of the device reader 101. The display ofa single still image of the separate device 103 on the device reader101, where the image represents the desired target scenario orarrangement, is applicable to both scenarios. Indeed, in many scenarios,the desired (or at least an acceptable) alignment will occur for a givendevice reader 101 and separate device 103 both in the case where theuser positions the separate device 103 in front of the device reader 101and in the case where the user positions the separate device 103 behindthe device reader 101. Specifically, when the device reader 101 is athin device, such as is typically the case for e.g. mobile phones, theantenna coupling is relatively independent of whether the separatedevice 103 is on one or the other side of the device reader 101.Therefore, users may simply match up the separate device 103 to thedisplayed image and the resulting operation will be not be significantlyaffected by whether the individual user chooses to do so with theseparate device 103 in front of or behind the device reader 101.

In some scenarios, one or both of the antennas may be positioned suchthat it is preferred that the separate device 103 is in front (oralternatively behind) the device reader 101. In such scenarios, the usermay e.g. be instructed to perform the alignment such that the desiredorder of the devices is achieved. The instructions may be staticallyprovided, such as instructions in a manual provided with the separatedevice 103, or may in some embodiments be provided dynamically on thedisplay. For example, as part of determining the first image, the devicereader 101 may determine whether it is significant for the separatedevice 103 to be in front or behind the device reader 101. If not, nospecific instructions are provided. However, if it is significant,instructions may be provided to the user to perform the desiredoperation. For example, the text “Please position the smartphone infront of the toothbrush such that the toothbrush lines up with the imageon the display.” may be presented on the display.

The approach may provide a substantially improved user experience. E.g.whenever a user needs to touch a physical product to a device reader, animage is presented on the display of the device reader showing part ofthe physical product. The image is typically presented such that it isscaled, rotated and positioned in order for the representation of theproduct to have a natural size when displayed and such that when theimage part on the display and the physical product appearance align tolook like one image, the NFC antennas of the device reader and theproduct will be aligned. Indeed, in many applications, the on-screenimage part looks to the user like a ‘puzzle piece’ that needs to becompleted. The image may in many scenarios have the same color etc. asthe product and may indeed be selected to match the physical product asmuch as possible.

The first image is specifically a still image of all or part of theseparate device 103, such as a photo, drawing or outline of the separatedevice 103. The first image is displayed as a still image, i.e. thedisplay 205 is driven to display a still image of (at least part of) theseparate device 103. The displayed image is thus a fixed, static andpermanent image which is displayed on the display 205 during the useroperation. Specifically, when the communication setup is initialized,the display processor 207 renders the first image on the display 205.The rendered image is then permanently displayed until the communicationsetup is terminated (whether successfully by the communication beingestablished or unsuccessfully by the communication setup beingabandoned). The first image is accordingly a fixed or static still imagewhich is continuously displayed during the process.

The first image which is rendered on the display 205 is thus a static,still image which is displayed for an extended period of time. The firstimage may specifically be displayed for at least 1 second, and typicallysignificantly longer, such as no less than 2, 5, 10 or 30 seconds.

The displayed first image is specifically a still image and is not anindividual image or frame of a sequence of images, such as a videosequence or moving image sequence. Rather, a (semi-)permanent image isrendered.

The displayed image represents the desired or target scenario and doesnot reflect the current relationship between the device reader 101 andthe separate device 103. The image is accordingly not an image which iscontinuously updated but rather the same still image is constantlypresented for an extended time interval. Specifically, the image doesnot vary as a function of the position or movement of the device reader101, or of the separate device 103. Indeed, the approach utilizes thatthe displayed image remains the same as the device reader 101 and/orseparate device 103 are moved. Indeed, the image is a constant imagerepresenting the target scenario/end goal and this remains constantwhile the user moves the device reader 101 and/or the separate device103 in order to achieve this target situation.

Also, it is noted that the alignment between the first image antennaposition and the device reader antenna position is constant for thedisplayed image, and that this alignment does not change as long as thefirst image is presented. In particular, the alignment between the firstimage antenna position (in the displayed image) and the device readerantenna position is independent of any movement or position of thedevice reader 101 and/or the separate device 103.

Rather, as the first image is permanently displayed, the displayposition corresponding to the first image antenna position is alsoconstant, i.e. the same point on the display 205 (e.g. the same pixel)corresponds to the first image antenna position throughout the process.As the position of the first antenna 105 is also constant, therelationship between all the positions remains constant. Specifically,the relative positions do not change as the separate device 103 or thedevice reader 101 are moved by the user.

In many embodiments, the first image is a predetermined image which mayhave been generated prior to it being displayed, i.e. it is typicallynot an image captured in connection with the alignment process.

In many embodiments, the device reader 101 may comprise an image store(or the image store may be remote) and the first image may be an imagestored in the image store. The first image may in such an example beretrieved from the image store and presented by the display processor,i.e. the first image may be a stored image. In most embodiments, theimage of the separate device 103 is an actual photo of the physicaldevice reader 101. However, it will be appreciated that this is notessential and that in other embodiments, the image may for example be adrawing or an outline image only showing the outline of the separatedevice 103.

The device reader 101 may thus operate in such a way that it provides anoutput that guides a user to perform the correct movement when using NFCto establish a connection between a device reader 101 and a product (theseparate device 103).

The approach may reduce a problem which is perceived as one of the mostsignificant in the development of user friendly applications using NFCcommunication. Namely, it has been found that touching a product and anNFC device reader at the right spot is frustrating to many casual users.Such products may be handheld and relatively small such as e.g. atoothbrush, or a stationary apparatus such as an espresso machine. Wheninstructed to touch a specific NFC spot (where the antenna is located)with an NFC enabled mobile phone, experiments have shown that manypeople find this to be a very frustrating experience. Often, they arenot able to locate the spot accurately and the operation often resultsin a mismatch of the two antenna areas (of the product and the devicereader).

Further investigation has revealed that these issues are typicallyrelated to a number of issues. Specifically, it was found that there isa lack of standardization of the orientation, location and size of theNFC area in a mobile device, such as a mobile phone or tablet. Moreover,the size of mobile devices can vary substantially, such as e.g. fromsmartphones with small screens (say 3.5 inch screens) up to largetablets (e.g. up to 20 inch screens). Relative to the size of theproduct or device reader, the appropriate NFC spot can be very smallwhich makes ‘hitting’ the target difficult. The coupling is furtherdependent on the orientation of the devices and the antennas in thedevices, which further complicates the operation. For example, when thedevice reader is touching the product at a suboptimal angle, the chancesof receiving information via NFC will be reduced. Also, the operation oftouching a product with e.g. a mobile phone seems unusual andnon-conventional to many people.

The described approach of displaying a part of the image of the producton the display such that when the user “completes the image” by aligningthe product and the device reader, the antennas will be appropriatelyaligned, has been found to address most or all of these issues.Furthermore, it typically achieves a very intuitive reaction from theuser who experiences the action of aligning the devices as a simple andstraightforward every day action rather than a specific technicaloperation. Indeed, the approach has been evaluated in practice where itwas found that the operation of the device reader 101 resulted in a userexperience and operation that was considered to be very natural andeasy. It was also found that the quality of the resulting communicationlink on average was significantly improved.

The approach may for example provide particularly advantageous operationfor devices that have a plurality of internal antennas which can be readby a device reader. For example, different antennas may be used toprovide different positions on the device which can be used forproviding different functions. In such scenarios the image may beselected to show the part of the separate device which comprises theantenna supporting the specific function of the current applicationsupported by the separate device 103.

For example, appliances may have many internal antennas that willtrigger different features on a smartphone when this is brought intoproximity with the individual antenna. E.g. a coffee machine may have acontrol NFC spot, which when touched will show the control userinterface. In addition, it may have a different NFC spot to start adiagnostic application on the smartphone. It may further have a thirdNFC spot that can trigger the presentation of the user manual. Anadvantage of the described approach is that a user will be clearly bedirected towards the appropriate NFC spot.

In some embodiments, the device reader 101 may itself generate the firstimage based on locally stored information and local processing. Anexample of such a device reader 101 is illustrated in FIG. 5 whichcorresponds to the device reader 101 of FIG. 1 with functionality forcreating the first image.

In addition to the example of FIG. 1, the device reader 101 of FIG. 5comprises an image processor 501 which is coupled to the displayprocessor 207. The image processor 501 is arranged to generate the firstimage from a second image by applying image operations to the secondimage. The image processor 501 is further coupled to an image generator503 which provides the second image to the image processor 501.

In the example, the second image is an image of (at least part of) theseparate device 103 which is not customized to the specific combinationof the device reader 101 and the separate device 103. From thenon-customized second image, the image processor 501 generates a firstimage which is customized to the specific combination of the devicereader 101 and the separate device 103.

The second image may thus typically be a standard image of the separatedevice 103 which has not been customized to the specific characteristicsof the device reader 101, and specifically which has not been customizedto the display characteristics and the antenna position of the devicereader 101. Specifically, the second image may be a stock image of theseparate device 103 which is generated independently of the devicereader 101 and which can be used by a range of different device readers.The display processor 207 may be arranged to generate the first image asan image which is customized to the device reader 101 by adapting thesecond image.

The second image will have a corresponding second image antenna positionwhich corresponds to the position of the antenna 107 in the separatedevice 103. This position will typically be provided as separateposition data, such as meta-data specifying an x,y position of thesecond antenna 107 in the second image. The display processor 207 willfurther have information which provides the device reader antennaposition. For example, data may be (e.g. permanently at manufacturing)stored in the display processor 207 which defines an x,y position on thedisplay that corresponds to the desired optimal position of the NFCantenna of a separate device when performing NFC communications.

Specifically, the position on the display which is closest to (e.g. thecenter of) the first antenna 105 may be stored in the display processor207. The display processor 207 may then proceed to generate the firstimage by including at least part of the second image such that thesecond image antenna position will align with the device reader antennaposition when the first image is displayed on the display 205.

Specifically, at least part of the second image may inserted/copied intothe first image such that the part of the second image at the secondimage antenna position is positioned on a first image antenna positionwhich corresponds to the device reader antenna position.

Thus, the second image antenna position is inserted at an x,y positionin the first image which corresponds to the stored x,y position for thedisplay.

The first image may be arranged to have the same pixel dimensions as thedisplay 205. In such a case, the first image antenna position and thedevice reader antenna position may both be given in terms of pixelcoordinates of the display, and the first image may specifically bedisplayed such that the first image antenna position is at the samepixel position as the device reader antenna position. The device readerantenna position may be stored as pixel coordinates in the first image,and the display processor 207 may insert the second image such that thesecond image antenna position indicated by the associated meta-data forthe second image will coincide with the pixel position indicated by thepixel coordinates of the device reader antenna position.

This approach may result in the first image being presented to the usersuch that if the user proceeds to align the separate device 103 with theimage on the display, the alignment of the devices will be as desired,and thus it will tend to result in the optimal positioning of theantennas 105, 107 relative to each other.

In many embodiments, the display processor 207 may perform a scaling ofthe part of the second image which is inserted into the first image.Indeed, in order to facilitate and optimize the operation by the user,the representation of the separate device 103 in the first image is suchthat it has substantially the same size as the physical device itselfwhen the first image is displayed. Accordingly, the display processor207 may scale the second image when inserting it in the first image. Thescale factor may be such that the resulting representation on thedisplay is approximately life size.

The determination of the scale factor may be determined from knowledgeof a characteristic, such as a pixel size or total size of the display.For example, the total size of the display and the pixel resolution maybe known for the display. Furthermore, a scale of the second image maybe known, e.g. in the form of a pixel size or a total size of the image.The scaling may then be determined to correct for any differences. Forexample, the scaling factor may be set as the ratio between the pixelsize of the second image and the pixel size of the first image.

Thus, the first image is generated such that when it is displayed on thedisplay the visual representation of the separate device 103 will besubstantially life size (say within 5%). The scaling of the second imageis accordingly such that the display of the first image will result in a1:1 scale representation of (at least part of) the separate device 103.

The scaling may be determined on the basis of information relating tocharacteristics of the second image, the first image and the display205. For example, data describing the pixel dimensions for the secondimage, the first image and the display may be provided and used.

As a specific example, the second image may be provided with informationwhich indicates that each pixel corresponds to a physical dimension of,say 0.2 mm×0.2 mm. The display may have a physical pixel dimension of,say, 0.1 mm×0.1 mm. The physical pixel dimension for the first image maybe calculated based on the relationship between pixels of the firstimage and of the display. In many embodiments, the first image maydirectly correspond to the displayed image, i.e. it may be generated tohave the exact same pixel resolution. For example, if the display 205has a resolution of 1000 by 1500 pixels, the first image may begenerates as a 1000 by 1500 pixel image that can be displayed directly.In this case, the physical dimension of the pixels of the first image isalso 0.1 mm×0.1 mm. Accordingly, the scaling of the second image will besuch that each pixel of the second image will correspond to four pixelsof the first image thereby resulting in the display of the first imageproviding a life size representation of the separate device 103.

Thus, in order to determine the first image from the second image, thedisplay processor 207 may use information for the second image relatingthis to the physical dimensions represented. For example, acorresponding physical size for pixels, a pixel density (e.g. dpi), or atotal resolution and physical image area may be provided and used by thedisplay processor 207.

In some embodiments, meta-data may be provided with the second imageindicating relevant characteristics of the second image. Further suchmeta-data may e.g. provide information indicative of e.g. distinctivelocations on the surface which allows selection of the best image e.g.by rotating the second image in a manner that provides a moredistinctive character. In some embodiments, specific positions mayalternatively or additionally be identified in the second image by imageprocessing; e.g. by detecting salient features such as dots or edges. Byexplicitly providing such information using meta-data, a more accurateoperation can often be achieved. For example, if the surface of theseparate device has e.g. repetitive structures that easily alias, imageprocessing may provide inaccurate or ambiguous detection.

In some embodiments, the image processing parameters may be determinedbased on a user input. For example, the first time a second image isused, the device reader 101 may scale the second image such that thewhole image can be shown on the display. The user may then be asked tohold the separate device 103 close to the display and manually scale theimage on the display until it has the same size as the physical separatedevice 103 (e.g. using a dedicated user button or using pinch-and-zoomfinger operations on a touch display). If the device reader 101 hasinformation of the desired first image antenna position (the first imageantenna position can be considered the target position for the secondimage antenna position when generating the first image) as well as ofthe second image antenna position, the system may then proceed togenerate the first image by positioning the scaled second image suchthat the first and second image antenna positions coincide in the firstimage.

In some embodiments, the position may also be based on user inputs. Forexample, after having scaled the image, the user may be presented withan indication of the communication quality of the NFC communication link(e.g. derived from a signal strength or an error rate), and asked tomove the device reader 101 and the separate device 103 relative to eachother, as well as moving the image on the display, until an optimalquality is obtained. The resulting scaling and position of the secondimage may then be stored and used for future coupling operationsallowing the display processor 207 to generate the corresponding imagein the future.

In such embodiments, the result of the user alignment (as well as forexample future alignments between the separate device 103 and the devicereader 101) may be captured. The resulting data may for example beuploaded to a remote server where it can be stored. Other device readersmay then retrieve the information from the remote server and use thisdirectly to customize the image thereby avoiding the need for these tobe individually calibrated. In such embodiments, the data may forexample be uploaded together with the image itself.

Also, in some embodiments, the second image may be generated locally atthe device reader 101. In such cases, the second image may be uploadedto the remote server for other device readers to access, typicallytogether with the adjustment or calibration data. For example, the usermay take a photo of the separate device, e.g. using a smartphonecomprising the device reader. This photo may then be adjusted manuallyby the user to ensure appropriate alignment. The resulting image, and/orthe original photo together with the adjustment data may then beuploaded to the remote server for other device readers to use.

In some embodiments, the photo may be sent to the remote server whichmay then proceed to generate the first image, e.g. using imagerecognition etc.

In some embodiments, the resulting first image may be stored anddirectly displayed whenever an NFC communication link is set up with theseparate device 103 in the future.

Thus, the approach allows the device reader 101 to generate a customizedimage that can be used to assist the user in properly aligning devices.It also provides an efficient approach for determining the displaycharacteristics and antenna positions (at least relative to each other)such that the appropriate image can be presented.

In some embodiments, the display processor 207 may also be arranged torotate the second image when inserting elements (or the entire image)thereof into the first image. For example, the second image may beangled in a desired direction that achieves the most convenientcoupling.

The approach may in some embodiments and scenarios be used to guide theuser to establish a link between the NFC antennas 105, 107 bypositioning the separate device 103 in front of the device reader 101.In other embodiments and scenarios, the user may be guided to establisha link between the NFC antennas by positioning the separate device 103behind the device reader 101.

The latter case is illustrated by the examples of FIGS. 3 and 4. Thisapproach is often preferable in scenarios wherein the separate device103 is bigger than the device reader 101 (in at least one direction). Insuch cases, as shown e.g. in FIGS. 3 and 4, part of the separate device103 will be visible behind the device reader 101 and thus the devicereader 101 will (when optimal alignment is achieved) occlude part of theseparate device 103 but not the whole separate device 103.

In such embodiments, the first image can comprise a representation of atleast part of the separate device 103 which is occluded by the devicereader 101 when the two devices 101, 103 are aligned perfectly. Thus,when the two devices 101, 103 are aligned, the displayed image canessentially fill in the gap in the visual impression of the device whichis created by the occlusion by the device reader 101. Thus, the userwill effectively complete the perceived image by aligning the displaysuch that it shows the occluded parts of the device reader 101.

Thus, in this scenario, the display effectively presents an image ofsome of the features of the device, where the features shown are thosethat are blocked or occluded by the device reader 101 when this is heldby the user as desired for coupling the antennas 105, 107.

As the separate device 103 extends beyond the display and the devicereader 101 in at least one direction, part of the separate device 103will be visible to the user, and the displayed image is generated tomatch this part of the device. Thus, the image is generated such thatwhen the device reader 101 and separate device 103 are properly alignedthere, will be a smooth transition between the visual impressionprovided by the separate device 103 itself and that provided by thedisplayed image. In order to provide the best match between the deviceand the displayed image of the device, the displayed image is generatedto present the separate device 103 at the same physical size as theactual separate device 103.

The approach may be advantageous in many scenarios and for many devices.In particular, it may provide more visual information to the user of theseparate device 103 which can assist in the alignment. For example, itmay include texture, surface patterns, logos etc. which are present onthe separate device 103 and which can be used to align the devices 101,103 (as e.g. illustrated in FIG. 3).

Also, the approach may be perceived as convenient to users. A furtheradvantage of the approach is that the display 205 can also be used toprovide user information to the user, as the user can view anun-occluded screen. For example, the display 205 may simultaneously beused to provide operating instructions to the user or to provide e.g.control or feedback to the user. For example, a signal strength orsimilar indication can be displayed to provide further information onthe coupling between the antennas 101, 103.

Embodiments wherein the user is guided to position the separate device103 in front of the device reader 101 may be particularly suited to somedevices or device readers wherein this will result in a closer couplingbetween the antennas 105, 107.

The approach is also particularly suitable to scenarios wherein theseparate device 103 is e.g. significantly smaller than the device reader101. For example, if the separate device 103 is much smaller than thedevice reader 101, the device reader 101 may potentially completelyocclude the separate device 103 when the two antennas are aligned.However, if the display 205 presents a representation of part, orpossible the whole, of the separate device 103, this can be used toposition the separate device 103 on top of the display 205 such that itwill match or fit the displayed representation. This approach can beused even if the separate device 103 is completely within the boundariesof the device reader 101 or even of the display 205.

In such embodiments, the first image may comprise a representation of anoutline of at least part of the separate device (103). In someembodiments, the first image may be generated to include arepresentation of the outline of the separate device 103 e.g. bysuitable lines. The first image is generated such that when it isdisplayed, it will match the projection of the outline of the physicalseparate device 103 on the display 205 when the device reader 101 andthe separate device 103 are optimally aligned (and thus when the twoantenna positions are aligned).

A user will accordingly see a full size outline of the separate device103 (or part of it) on the display 205 and can then proceed to positionthe separate device 103 on top such that the edges of the separatedevice 103 match the outline in the displayed image. By performing thisoperation, the two antennas 105, 107 will then be aligned.

In some embodiments, the displayed image may include an image of part ofthe separate device, such as e.g. a surface. The user may then seek toocclude the displayed parts of the separate device 103 by the separatedevice 103 itself, such that the visual impression of the separatedevice 103 matches that provided by the display 205 when not occluded bythe separate device 103.

In many embodiments, the device reader 101 may potentially be used witha wide range of separate devices. For example, a smartphone may be usedwith a range of toothbrushes from different manufactures, or withcompletely different devices, such as kitchen appliances. Therefore, thedevice reader 101 may in many embodiments be arranged to displaydifferent images for different NFC setups.

In many embodiments, the display processor 207 may be arranged toretrieve the second image from a plurality of images depending on anindication of the specific identity or type of the separate device 103.For example, the image generator 503 may in many embodiments comprise animage store which stores a plurality of images of different devicestogether with identity data (either of the individual device or of amodel or a type of device). The display processor 207 may be arranged toextract the second image, corresponding to the separate device 103 withwhich the current NFC communication link is setup, from the plurality ofimages.

This may for example be done in response to an indication of theseparate device 103 received from the separate device 103, e.g. over theNFC communication link itself. For example, when the device reader 101detects the presence of the separate device 103, it may seek to read theseparate device 103 to determine which specific device this is. Ifsuccessful, the display processor 207 may then access the image store ofthe image generator 503 to extract the second image corresponding to theidentified device. It may then generate the first image which isdisplayed on the display of the device reader 101 thereby causing theuser to properly align the devices.

In some embodiments, the selection of the first image may be based onthe user application that is activated to read the data from theseparate device 103. For example, if the user initiates the applicationfor downloading and analyzing tooth brushing data, the display processor207 may retrieve the image for the user's toothbrush and present this.

In yet other embodiments, the selection of the appropriate image may bebased on user input. Indeed, in some embodiments, the user may directlyselect which image to use.

In some embodiments, the displayed image is derived from an imagereceived from a remote server. For example, the first or second imagemay be received from a remote server. For example, as illustrated inFIG. 6, the device reader 101 may be coupled to a network 601 which isalso coupled to a remote server 603. The network 601 may be any networkand may specifically be or comprise the Internet. The device reader 101may be coupled to the network 601 through any suitable means. Forexample, the device reader 101 may be a smartphone which has datacommunication functionality for wirelessly coupling to the Internet orto a Local Area Network (LAN) which may then possibly be connected tothe Internet.

In the example, the remote server 603 may comprise a large store ofimages including images for a large number of different devices. Inaddition, the store may store data defining where the NFC antenna ispositioned in each of the devices. The remote server 603 may for examplebe operated by an independent 3^(rd) party which may allow anymanufacturer to upload relevant images and data to the server forstorage.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of a device reader 101 for an embodimentin which images are retrieved from a remote server 603. The devicereader 101 may correspond to the device reader 101 of FIG. 2 but furtherincludes functionality for retrieving images from the remote server 603.

The device reader 101 of FIG. 7 comprises a network interface 701 whichis arranged to couple the device reader 101 to the network 601. Thenetwork interface 701 may include the necessary or desired functionalityfor communicating with the remote server 603 over the network 601. Forexample, the network interface 701 may include wireless communicationfunctionality, Internet Protocol communication functionality etc.required to allow the device reader 101 to wirelessly communicate overthe Internet.

The network interface 701 is coupled to a message transmitter 703 whichis further coupled to the device controller 203. The message transmitter703 is arranged to generate and transmit a request message to the remoteserver 603. The request message requests that the remote server 603transmits an image back to the device reader 101. Thus, in response toreceiving the request message, the remote server 603 may transmit databack to the device reader 101 via the network 601 where the data mayinclude an image of the separate device 103. Accordingly, the devicereader 101 further comprises a data receiver 705 which is coupled to thenetwork interface 701 and to the display processor 207, and which isarranged to receive the data from the remote server 603 and to extractthe included image and forward it to the display processor 207.

In some embodiments, the request message may include an indication ofthe separate device 103. For example, device identification data may beincluded. This device identification data may e.g. indicates theidentity of an individual device, or more typically it may provide anindication of the type or model of the separate device 103. E.g. arequest message may be transmitted to the separate device 103 whichcomprises data specifying the manufacturer and model of the separatedevice 103 (such as e.g. the manufacturer and model number of thetoothbrush).

The separate device 103 may then use the provided identification data tofind a suitable image. Specifically, it may search through its store ofimages and find an image matching the identification data. For example,an image of the indicated toothbrush model from the indicatedmanufacturer may be identified and communicated back to the devicereader 101 together with an indication of the NFC antenna position inthe image.

When receiving the image from the data receiver 705, the displayprocessor 207 may proceed to generate the image to be displayed aspreviously described for the example where the images are stored locallyin the device reader 101. Thus, rather than retrieving the second imagefrom a local storage, the device reader 101 may receive it from a remoteserver 603. It may then generate the first image from this second imagerather than from the locally stored image.

It will be appreciated that the approaches of local storage and remotestorage may be combined. For example, the device reader 101 may firstseek to retrieve a suitable image from a local store. If no suitableimage is found, it may then proceed to access the remote server 603 toretrieve an image from there. In addition to generating the first imagefrom this received second image, the device reader 101 may also store itlocally for future use.

In some embodiments, the device reader 101 may in addition to theidentification data for the separate device 103 also transmit datacharacterizing the device reader 101 itself. This data may for examplebe identification data e.g. identifying a type or model of the devicereader 101, or may e.g. be data indicative of one or morecharacteristics of the device. For example, the data may include anindication of a physical size and a pixel resolution of the display. Inaddition, the corresponding device reader antenna position may beprovided.

In such embodiments, the remote server 603 may use the providedinformation to generate an image that is adapted to the specificcharacteristics of the device reader 101. Thus, in this scenario, theremote server 603 may return an image which is specific for thecombination of the specific separate device 103 and device reader 101.In many embodiments, the image may be displayed as received by thedevice reader 101. Thus, in such embodiments, the remote server 603 maydirectly provide the first image ready for displaying by the displayprocessor 207.

In some embodiments, the request message may comprise an indication of acharacteristic of the device reader 101 but may not include anyindication for the separate device 103. This may for example be the casewhere the remote server 603 is dedicated to one specific separate devicebut provides images suitable for a range of different device readers.

For example, a server may be set up by a manufacturer of a specifictoothbrush. In addition, an application may be provided to toothbrushusers where the application is not specific to just one device reader101. For example, an Android or iOS application may be published whichcan be downloaded to a range of different smartphones. A givensmartphone running the application to analyze toothbrush data may thensend a request message to the server where the request message includesan indication of the specific smartphone used. In response, the servermay retrieve an image of the toothbrush optimized for that smartphoneand send it to the smartphone. The smartphone may directly present thereceived image on the display. By aligning the toothbrush with the imageon the display, the NFC antennas will be aligned and optimized NFC dataexchange can be achieved.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of elements of a remote server whichspecifically may be the remote server 603 illustrated in FIG. 1. Theremote server 603 may provide an image to the device reader 101 which inthe specific example may be used directly by the device reader 101, i.e.the image provided by the remote server 603 may already be customized tothe device reader 101, and in the specific example is customized to thespecific combination of the device reader 101 and the separate device103. Thus, in the specific example, the separate device 103 provides thefirst image (i.e. an image customized to the display and antennaposition alignment) to the device reader 101.

The separate device 103 comprises a network interface 801 whichinterfaces the separate device 103 to the network 601, and in thespecific example comprises the required functionality for interfacingthe separate device 103 to the Internet.

The network interface 801 is coupled to a message receiver 803 whichreceives the request message from the device reader 101. It thenproceeds to extract the data of the request message and in the specificexample, it extracts the identification data for the device reader 101and for the separate device 103.

The message receiver 803 is coupled to an image retriever 805 whichreceives the identification data. The image retriever 805 is coupled toan image store 807 which comprises a potentially large data base ofimages of different devices that may be used with a device reader. Forexample, the data base may comprise images of toothbrushes, blenders,washing machines, etc. that are able to communicate via NFCcommunication links.

In some embodiments, the data base may comprise multiple images for eachpossible device, and indeed may comprise images that are alreadycustomized for specific device readers. For example, an image of a givendevice, say a toothbrush, may be stored for a range of differentsmartphones.

Based on the received identification data, the image retriever 805proceeds to retrieve the corresponding image from the image store 807.Specifically, the image corresponding to the device identified by theseparate device identification data is extracted from the data base. Ifa plurality of images is stored for different device readers, the imageretriever 805 may further select the image corresponding to the devicereader identification data. If no match is found for the specific devicereader, a default image may be retrieved.

In some embodiments, the retrieved image may be transmitted back to thedevice reader 101 without any modifications or image processing beingperformed at the separate device 103. If the image is a default imagewhich is not customized to the specific device reader 101, thiscorresponds to transmitting the second (non-customized) image back tothe device reader 101 which may then proceed to customize it aspreviously described. If the image is however one that has already beencustomized to the specific device reader 101, this may be considered tocorrespond to a transmission of the first image to the device reader 101where the first image can be used directly.

However, in the example of FIG. 8, the image retriever 805 is coupled toan image processor 809 which is arranged to apply image processing tothe retrieved image in order to customize it to the specific devicereader 101 (if the retrieved image is one that has already beencustomized, the image processor 809 may simply forward the image withoutapplying any image processing).

In the example, the image processor 809 thus receives a second imagewhich is not customized to the specific device reader 101 and from thisit generates a first image which is customized to the specific devicereader 101. The image processing performed by the image processor 809 isbased on the first image antenna position for the antenna 105 of thedevice reader 101, the second image antenna position for the antenna 107of the separate device 103 and on a display characteristic.Specifically, the image processor 809 may generate the first image usingthe first image antenna position as a target position in the first imagefor the second image antenna position.

The first image antenna position may be provided in the request message,e.g. as a pixel position on the display. The display characteristic mayspecifically be a size, pixel resolution or pixel size for the displayof the device reader 101 and may also be provided by data in the requestmessage.

In some embodiments, the separate device 103 may itself be arranged todetermine the first image antenna position and/or the displaycharacteristic for the specific device reader 101. For example, theimage processor 809 may comprise a data base which for a large number ofpossible device readers (such as a large number of smartphones) comprisedata characterizing the display size, resolution and appropriate NFCantenna position. The image processor 809 may accordingly extract thedata stored for the specific device reader type identified by the devicereader identification data.

The second image antenna position may typically be stored together withthe device image in the image store 807 and may thus be retrieved by theimage retriever 805 together with the image.

The image processor 809 may then proceed to generate the first(customized) image from the retrieved second (non-customized) image. Theimage processor 809 may specifically proceed to scale, rotate andposition at least part of the second image in the first image aspreviously described for the image processor 501.

The resulting first image may then be fed to an image transmitter 811which is coupled to the network interface 801 and which is arranged totransmit the first image to the device reader 101. The device reader 101may then use the first image directly without needing to perform imageprocessing to customize the image to the specific device reader 101.

The use of a remote server to provide the image may be advantageous inmany embodiments as it may allow a single centralized server to supporta large number of device readers. This may for example substantiallyreduce the memory requirements in the individual device readers, and mayalso reduce the computational burden. Furthermore, it may facilitateprovision and distribution of suitable images as well as information onthe antenna positions. For example, a manufacturer of a devicesupporting NFC can simply upload an image and associated information toone centralized server.

Previously, a number of specific examples of how a customized image canbe generated have been described. The customized image was specificallygenerated such that when presented on the display of the device reader101, the positioning of a separate device to be aligned with the imageon the display will result in the NFC antennas of the device reader andthe separate device to be aligned with each other. Specifically, thealignment may be such that the distance between the device readerantenna position and the first image antenna position is substantiallyminimized when the customized image is displayed. The customization ofthe image to be displayed may specifically be such that the devicereader antenna position and the second antenna position coincide. Insome embodiments or scenarios, the distance between the first and secondantenna positions may be subject to other criteria or requirements.

As previously described, the customized image may be generated from thenon-customized image by e.g. performing translations, rotations andscalings. Furthermore, the image operations may be dependent on variousdisplay properties, such as e.g. a size of the display; an orientationof the display; a resolution of the display and/or a pixel size of thedisplay.

However, it will be appreciated that different image processingoperations may be applied in different embodiments and for differentimages and displays. Indeed, although various specific examples ofpossible image processing approaches are described, it will beappreciated that these are merely exemplary and that other approachesmay be used in other embodiments.

For example, the customized image may be generated from thenon-customized image by a scaling of the image in such a way that whenthe device reader 101 is placed in an optimal way for NFC transaction,the image has the same scale/size as the separate device 103. Forexample when the separate device 103 is a tooth brush, and part of thebody is shown on the display, the width of the body (in mm) shown on thedisplay is similar to the (visually perceived) width of the productsize. Also when there are patterns on the product, the scaling (e.g. inthe X, Y direction) is performed such that the aspect ratio of thepattern is the same.

As another example, translation of the image may be used to place theimage on the display of the device reader such that it guides the userto place the spot where the antenna is located in the device reader ontop of the antenna inside the separate device 103. E.g. a tablet mayhave a display and product body which is much larger than the actualantenna side. By translating the image to say the corner where theantenna is located, the user will understand where the location of theantenna is inside the tablet. For different tablet types, size andapplied NFC technologies, the antenna size, location and evenorientation may be different.

Typically when using e.g. a smartphone in one orientation, say inlandscape mode, the image can be rotated in such way that the antennasare aligned properly for this orientation. If the smartphone shiftsorientation, e.g. to portrait mode, the image may be rotatedaccordingly. It is often more advantageous to use one orientation overothers, and by rotating the image accordingly an improved userexperience can be achieved.

It will be appreciated that other image operations than simple scaling,translation or rotations may be used. For example if the antenna is bentinside the device reader (e.g. in a wrist watch) or the separate device103 has a slope or curve where the antenna is positioned, the antennamay not be planar. In such cases, e.g. an affine or projective imagetransformation could be used to correct the guiding image on the mobiledevice in such a way that the total visual representation (of theseparate device and the image on the display of the device reader)intuitively fits together. With affine transformations it is for examplepossible to skew an image or change a square image into a trapezoidshape.

Although the previous description has focused on the device reader being(part of) a smartphone or similar device, it will be appreciated thatthe device reader may be any suitable device or may be part of anysuitable device. For example, it may be a watch, bracelet, E-inkdevices/digital paper, credit size devices with screens etc.

It will be appreciated that the above description for clarity hasdescribed embodiments of the invention with reference to differentfunctional circuits, units and processors. However, it will be apparentthat any suitable distribution of functionality between differentfunctional circuits, units or processors may be used without detractingfrom the invention. For example, functionality illustrated to beperformed by separate processors or controllers may be performed by thesame processor or controllers. Hence, references to specific functionalunits or circuits are only to be seen as references to suitable meansfor providing the described functionality rather than indicative of astrict logical or physical structure or organization.

The invention can be implemented in any suitable form includinghardware, software, firmware or any combination of these. The inventionmay optionally be implemented at least partly as computer softwarerunning on one or more data processors and/or digital signal processors.The elements and components of an embodiment of the invention may bephysically, functionally and logically implemented in any suitable way.Indeed the functionality may be implemented in a single unit, in aplurality of units or as part of other functional units. As such, theinvention may be implemented in a single unit or may be physically andfunctionally distributed between different units, circuits andprocessors.

Although the present invention has been described in connection withsome embodiments, it is not intended to be limited to the specific formset forth herein. Rather, the scope of the present invention is limitedonly by the accompanying claims. Additionally, although a feature mayappear to be described in connection with particular embodiments, oneskilled in the art would recognize that various features of thedescribed embodiments may be combined in accordance with the invention.In the claims, the term comprising does not exclude the presence ofother elements or steps.

Furthermore, although individually listed, a plurality of means,elements, circuits or method steps may be implemented by e.g. a singlecircuit, unit or processor. Additionally, although individual featuresmay be included in different claims, these may possibly beadvantageously combined, and the inclusion in different claims does notimply that a combination of features is not feasible and/oradvantageous. Also the inclusion of a feature in one category of claimsdoes not imply a limitation to this category but rather indicates thatthe feature is equally applicable to other claim categories asappropriate. Furthermore, the order of features in the claims do notimply any specific order in which the features must be worked and inparticular the order of individual steps in a method claim does notimply that the steps must be performed in this order. Rather, the stepsmay be performed in any suitable order. In addition, singular referencesdo not exclude a plurality. Thus references to “a”, “an”, “first”,“second” etc. do not preclude a plurality. Reference signs in the claimsare provided merely as a clarifying example shall not be construed aslimiting the scope of the claims in any way.

1. A device reader for receiving data from a separate device, the devicereader comprising: a display; a first antenna for receiving data fromthe separate device, the first antenna having a device reader antennaposition relative to the display; a display processor for displaying afirst image of at least part of the separate device on the display, thefirst image having an associated first image antenna positioncorresponding to a position in the first image of an antenna in theseparate device; the display processor being arranged to display thefirst image such that the first image antenna position is aligned withthe device reader antenna position.
 2. The device reader of claim 1,further comprising: an image generator for providing a second image ofat least part of the separate device, the second image having anassociated second image antenna position corresponding to the positionin the second image of the antenna in the separate device; and an imageprocessor for generating the first image from the second image inresponse to the device reader antenna position, the second image antennaposition, and a display property of the display.
 3. The device reader ofclaim 2, further comprising: a transmitter for transmitting anindication of at least one of the device reader and the separate deviceto a remote server; and a receiver for receiving the second image fromthe remote server.
 4. The device of claim 1, further comprising: atransmitter for transmitting an indication of at least one of the devicereader and the separate device to a remote server; and a receiver forreceiving the first image from the remote server.
 5. The device readerof claim 1, wherein the display processor is arranged to display thefirst image independently of a movement of the device reader.
 6. Thedevice reader of claim 1, wherein the first image is a still image. 7.The device reader of claim 1, wherein the alignment between the firstimage antenna position and the device reader antenna position isindependent of a position of the device reader and of a position of theseparate device.
 8. The device reader of claim 1, wherein the firstimage comprises a representation of an outline of at least part of theseparate device corresponding to an outline of the separate deviceprojected on the display when the separate device is positioned in frontof the device reader and the first image antenna position is alignedwith the device reader antenna position.
 9. An apparatus for generatinga first image for displaying on a display of a device reader furthercomprising a first antenna for receiving data from a separate device,the first antenna having a first image antenna position in the firstimage, the apparatus comprising: an image generator for providing asecond image of at least part of the separate device, the second imagehaving an associated second image antenna position corresponding to aposition in the second image of an antenna in the separate device; andan image processor for generating the first image from the second imagein response to the first image antenna position, the second imageantenna position, and a display property of the display.
 10. Theapparatus of claim 9, wherein the image processor is arranged togenerate the first image to include a part of the second image includingthe second image position, the part of the second image being positionedto substantially minimize a distance between the first image antennaposition and the second image antenna position in the first image. 11.The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the image processor is arranged toinclude at least a part of the second image in the first image afterapplying an image operation to the least part of the second image, theimage operation being selected from the group consisting of: atranslation; a rotation; and a scaling.
 12. The apparatus of claim 9,wherein the display property comprises at least one property selectedfrom the group consisting of: a size of the display; a pixel size of thedisplay; an orientation of the display; and a resolution of the display.13. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the apparatus is remote from thedevice reader, and further comprises a transmitter arranged to transmitthe second image to the device reader.
 14. The apparatus of claim 9,comprising a receiver arranged to receive an indication of the devicereader from the device reader; and wherein the image processor isarranged to determine the display property in response to theindication.
 15. The apparatus of claim 9, comprising a receiver arrangedto receive an indication of the separate device from the device reader;and wherein the image generator is arranged to generate the second imagein response to the indication.
 16. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein theapparatus is comprised in the device reader.
 17. A method of operationfor a device reader operable to receive data from a separate device andcomprising a display and a first antenna for receiving data from theseparate device and having a device reader antenna position relative tothe display; the method comprising: displaying a first image of theseparate device on the display, the first image having an associatedsecond first image antenna position corresponding to a position of anantenna in the separate device, wherein the first image is displayedsuch that the first image antenna position is aligned with the devicereader antenna position.
 18. A method of generating a first image fordisplaying on a display of a device reader, the device reader comprisinga first antenna for receiving data from a separate device, the firstantenna having a first image antenna position in the first image, themethod comprising: providing a second image of at least part of theseparate device, the second image having an associated second imageantenna position corresponding to a position in the second image of anantenna in the separate device; and generating the first image from thesecond image in response to the first image antenna position, the secondimage antenna position, and a display property of the display. 19.(canceled)
 20. (canceled)